Police cruisers have begun recording the scene outside the cruiser for evidentiary purposes for drunk driving surveillance and arrests, traffic stops and arrests, etc. Many conventional police video systems use analog VHS video tape recorders and analog video cameras. An example of such systems is U.S. Pat. No. 4,789,904 owned by Kustom Signal, Inc. This patent discloses a vehicle mounted camera and control head mounted within the police car and a video recorder housed in the trunk in a bulletproof, environmentally controlled vault. The surveillance system also includes a wireless microphone. The system is powered off the battery and may be manually or automatically activated such as when the siren and/or lights come on.
Another example of in-car video systems is U.S. Pat. No. 6,028,528 assigned to Mobile-Vision, Inc. This patent discloses an apparatus that can manage transfers of video recording media bearing machine readable registration codes. This media is adapted to record video from a vehicle-mounted camera. The management apparatus (and the methods) operate with a user identification key carrying at least one machine readable, identification code, as well as a supplemental code. The apparatus has a port for reading and writing to the key, a registration device, and a processor. The port can provide in response to the key, an identification signal and a supplemental signal corresponding to the identification and supplemental code. The registration device can read the registration codes borne by the video recording media and can provide in response thereto a registration signal. The processor is coupled to the port and the registration device for (a)producing in response to the identification signal, a selection signal signifying an instruction to transfer that one of the video recording media bearing a selected one of the registration codes without requiring an intervening user selection, (b) verifying and recording the registration signal, and (c) writing the supplemental code through the port to the identification key. The management apparatus also includes a mobile system and a station system.
The mobile system includes a video recorder, a remote port device, and a controller. The video recorder can record on the video recording media, video from the vehicle-mounted camera. The remote port device can (i) write the supplemental code to the key, and (ii) read the key and provide in response thereto, a remote identification signal corresponding to the identification code. The controller is coupled to the remote port device and the video recorder for controlling the video recorder in response to the remote identification signal.
Another example of prior art in-car video systems is U.S. Pat. No. 5,408,330 to Squicciarini , et al. and owned by CrimTec, Inc. This patent teaches a video incident capture system for law enforcement vehicles. The video incident capture system incorporates a video camera, a VHS analog video recorder, a radar unit, a real time clock, a monitor, a portable wireless microphone and its associated receiver and a system controller integrating the control of the various components to produce a comprehensive, unedited record of the incident. The system controller superimposes the target speed and patrol speed data generated by the radar unit over the video signals generated by the video camera prior to being recorded on the videotape. The portable wireless microphone permits the conversation between the law enforcement and a second party to be made part of the recorded incident. A radar interface will replace the target and/or patrol speed data with error data when an error in the operating parameters of the radar unit is detected. The system controller also provides a control function which prohibits the video recorder from recording over a previously recorded portion of the videotape when the videotape has been either rewound or fast-forwarded from the position where the prior recording was terminated. The system controller and video recorder are enclosed in a temperature controlled sealed vault mounted in the trunk of the law enforcement vehicle.
The main problem with all these prior art systems is that they do not have adequate recording time capacity to cover an entire 8-hour police shift on one tape much less a 24-hour period. There are numerous other deficiencies of these analog video tape recorder systems. For example, they are bulky and the video recorder components frequently have to be mounted in the trunk of the police car. This complicates getting the video and audio signals to them and complicates interfacing between the officer and the unit. Further, the prior art in-car video systems do not all have the ability to select from different video and audio sources such as digital video cameras, analog video cameras and in-car or wireless microphones. They do not have the ability to report the police car position, and they all do not have the ability to record the lights and siren status. They do not all have an antitampering encryption process, and they do not have the ability to copy events that have already occurred onto video tape or a mini-digital video cassette recorder from a hard disk recorder if the record mode has not been selected. They also do not have the ability to select between in-car monitoring of the live video being recorded or local playback of what has already been recorded while continuing to record live video. They also do not all have the ability to select between in-car monitoring of the live video being recorded or local playback of what has already been recorded. None of these prior art systems have the ability to play back what has already been recorded while continuing to record.
Thus, a need has arisen for an in-car video system that has higher recording capacity and is small enough to be mounted in a single unit which may be mounted in the cab of the police car. Solution of one or more of the other above noted problems would also be desirable.